136 AMERICAN GAME. 
length into a subject so intricate and so full of details, 
as the habits and nature of trout, their haunts, habita- 
tions, and all the various devices for taking them which 
have been invented by the ingenuity of man. 
Of fresh water fish, they have been in all ages consid- 
ered the best on the board; and, as fish of game, none 
except others of their own family, such as the salmon, 
the salmon-trout, the grayling, and one variety of the 
lake-trout, are worthy of comparison to them; bold, 
active, and fierce in pursuit of their prey, voracious in 
their appetites, so cunning and quick-sighted that they 
can be deceived only by the finest of tackle, and the 
most exquisite imitations of the flies on which they feed 
by preference ; so vigorous, determined and savage in 
their resistance to the hook after being struck, that they 
can be mastered only by a rare combination of science 
and skill, of delicacy dnd firmness, of perseverance and 
resources; the capture of the brook-trout with the arti- 
ficial fly and single gut, or single horse-hair, which must 
be had recourse to where the streams are fine and the 
fish shy, is the very ne plus ultra, and has ever been so 
indisputably admitted, of the anglers’ art. The imple- 
ments are a light twelve-foot rod, very pliable and 
springy, and bending on a strain, in an even curve from 
the second joint to the tip—I prefer a solid butt, which 
gives more power in leverage and resistance against a 
strong run-away fish, and the spare tips can be carried 
in the handle of the landing-net, or gaff—a good click 
